A large majority of toilets in present use include a tank that can hold considerable water (e.g. five gallons) between flushings, and a flush valve at the bottom of the tank which is lifted to release water to the toilet bowl. Recent government regulations generally limit the amount of water used in each flushing to about 1.6 gallons. Although timed valves have been used to close the flush valve early and bricks have been placed in the tank to reduce the amount of water, such measures are easily reversed.
Applicant has been considering the development of a dump bucket toilet, which is described in several old patents, but which applicant has not seen in use. In such toilets, a bucket holds water between flushings and is tipped to release substantially all water. Applicant's recent U.S. Pat. No. 5,666,674 shows one design that applicant earlier developed. Applicant realizes that despite the advantages of a dump bucket toilet, of accurately measuring flush volume, permanently limiting the amount of water dispensed in each flushing, and avoiding leakage from leaky flush valves, that such toilets will not replace modified conventional toilets unless the new dump bucket toilet is of great simplicity and operates to provide an effective flushing with little water, in a tank of conventional shape and moderate height. Such a conventional tank usually lies very close to a bathroom wall, with the toilet bowl part extending forwardly therefrom. The shape and size of the toilet bowl part is substantially fixed, and to assure that it projects as little as possible forward of the bathroom wall, the tank must have a small forward-to-rearward depth of less than one foot. A dump bucket toilet which fit into a tank of such conventional shape, and which was of great simplicity and of reliable and efficient construction, would be of value.